The Battle

Last week, you could feel it in the air. Even Mother Nature joined in our Battle of the Bands as rain poured down on the Emerald City. We experienced casualties before the first beat of the drum. Jesse Fox dropped out at the last minute after their drummer threw his back out over the weekend. Waves of Mind also suffered a band member injury, but took to the stage anyway. Despite the set backs, the event was fun – as it always is.  

 Battle of the Bands judges - Josh Powell, Greg Garcia and Pete Greenburg[/caption] When the show began at 9:30, the judges were all settled in with clipboard in hand ready to rate each performance on composition, arrangement, creativity, originality, musicianship and audience satisfaction. The judging panel consisted of Joshua Powell, Program Director of The Vera Project; Pete Greenberg, Talent Buyer at Chop Suey; Greg Garcia, Talent Buyer at Tractor Tavern; and Rachel Ratner, DJ at KEXP and member of Partman Parthorse.

What What Now[/caption] It was a throw down from the get go. Mahaffey’s Dolls kicked off the show with their alternative indie rock. Next up was Black Science with their psychedelic transdimensional sounds. Waves of the Mind got the crowd moving and even sought audience input to show off their freestyle rap, a dramatic difference to the thrash metal rock of Slackhabit. Fat Cat rocked the stage and their wardrobe. What What Now provided an interesting contrast of hoarse vocals and poppy melody. WormWood closed out the show with their hip-hop beats. When they picked up the mic they drew the crowd away from the bar and up to the stage.  

While the evening was all about the bands proving their musicality, Airpocalypse stole the show. The trio of air guitar artists featuring our very own Jason Cheung from University Pizzeria performed between a couple of sets. The combination of passionate pantomime and eighties spandex won the crowd and the judges needed to be reminded that they could not vote for Airpocalypse.  

WormWood - This year's champions![/caption] When the dust finally settled and the speakers stopped vibrating, it was WormWood who walked away victorious with trophy, title and 2 days of recording studio time at Bear Creek Studios. Congratulations WormWood! And a big thanks to Vera Project who received a $5000 donation at the end of the night.